Attack on Titan: Is the Apple Car Project in Trouble?

In September 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had concrete plans to ship out to consumers the vehicle still in development, code name Project Titan, by as early as 2019. This was followed by an aggressive hiring spree of former automotive engineers from Tesla and Fiat Chrysler, as well as from battery Manufacturer A123 Systems.

Despite Project Titan being Silicon Valley’s worst kept secret, Apple has never formally acknowledged that they are in the process of developing a vehicle. And now Project Titan is believed to be in a hiring freeze stage after the exodus of project lead Steve Zadesky from Apple, which many critics were quick to point fingers to a sign of a foreboding future at this stage of development.

However, there is one important automotive executive who seems excited by whatever Apple has in store with Project Titan. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, Daimler, met recently with officials from 70 companies during a trip to Silicon Valley, including Apple and Google, which has also been peering into automotive technology. Zetsche remained mum on specific details, but had glowing praise for these tech companies who may be looking to actively partner with automotive manufacturers.

What Project Titan is shaping up to be is still a murky and uncertain read for the fates, but a commercialized version of self-driving automotive technology does seems to be the direction in which both Apple and Google are headed.